What Could Have Been
by MadDogLucario96
Summary: What if Himekawa was able to let go and move on after Tapirmon was sacrificed? Would she and Nishijima have the happy life that he obviously wanted them to have together? Find out in this alternate universe where she never pursued the reboot.


**To go along with "What Could Never Be", I came up with a "what-if" scenario where Nishijima and Himekawa got married, had a family, and lived out their days a while back. It's sad that she could never get over her grief and not only did it cost her her life, but his as well (although he did die a hero). Here's an alternate version where they lived happily ever after.**

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 _Nagano Prefecture_

"Daddy!"

Nishijima bolted straight up at the cry from the hallway, causing his brush to slip and mess up the kanji symbol he was working on. Not taking the time to reflect on his mistake, he got up to see what was wrong.

Opening the door, he was almost run over by a small child, who buried her face into his leg. He smiled as he bent down to the child's level.

"What's wrong, Kimi?" he asked sweetly as he gave her a comforting hug.

"Mommy's having another one of her moments again," replied Kimiko, the oldest child of Daigo and Maki Nishijima. She looked at her father with a frightened look in her golden eyes. Some small tears started to well up as well.

The smile on Daigo's face was completely wiped away as he picked his daughter up and carried her towards his wife's office. Tilting her chin towards him, he gave her a small smile.

"I'll take care of it, sweetheart," he said softly, hugging her close. "Don't worry. Go handle your brothers for now."

Kimiko nodded as he put her down, gave her a kiss on the top of her head, and let her go into the other room.

Daigo then turned his attention to his wife. Even after being together for almost twenty years, married for eight of them, Maki still had the occasional traumatic stress attacks from when her Digimon partner was sacrificed in order to stop the Dark Masters. His Digimon was chosen as one of the four sovereigns of the Digital World, but she wasn't so lucky.

The sounds of hyperventilating, things crashing to the floor, and screams reached his ears as he stood at the door of the office. Daigo didn't hesitate as he swung the door open and rushed to his wife's side. She had curled in a fetal position on the floor; twitching, thrashing, and screaming as if a demon were trying to possess her body.

He acted quickly, bringing her into a hug. Her nails dug deep into the skin of his arm, earning little droplets of blood that soaked into his white shirt, as she continued thrashing around. Daigo gritted his teeth due to the sharp pain, but endured it so his wife could get it out of her system.

"Hime, it's ok," he soothed gently. "I'm here. It's alright."

Soon she calmed down just enough that she couldn't be classified as losing her mind. Her breathing returned to a normal pace and her grip on his arm loosened. She looked up at him with tear-stricken golden eyes.

"Are you ok?"

She took a deep breath before answering him.

"I can't take this anymore," she sobbed. "I should have just agreed to the reboot while I had the chance."

"No, no, no, no, no," Daigo shook his head admonishingly, bringing her closer to him. "You don't mean that."

"Yes I do!"

He hushed her gently as she continued to cry, rubbing the back of her head like he used to do when Kimi was a baby. It hurt him to see his wife like this, but he didn't know what he could do to help. Even after all this time, he still had no answers.

"Hime, there are things in this world that are beyond our control," Daigo finally said, after letting Maki cry silently for the next few minutes. "Some things that can't be explained."

"You don't know how it feels, Daigo!"

"On the contrary," he retorted softly. "I know how it feels to be separated from those you love, but there is nothing we can do to undo the past. Tapirmon sacrificed himself so that we all could live. Don't let his death be for nothing."

"I'm not," she sniffled into the crook of his neck, clenching a piece of his shirt.

A yell then caught his ears, which caused him to smile.

"Besides, we have three little ones to look after."

The door burst open.

"Momma!"

Two little boys barged into the room and threw themselves at their mother, dog piling on top of her with joyous laughs. Maki couldn't help herself, laughing right along with them and holding the two close.

"Ryuki, Sasuke," Daigo chuckled, pulling the twin boys off of their mother. "Get off your mom."

He gave them both a kiss on the cheek and ushered them out of the room.

He and his wife followed them to see the door outside slide open and all three kids run into the garden. Hearing their joyous laughter and seeing them run around, with the Hida mountains in the background, was something Daigo would never get tired of.

"You see, Hime?" he smiled. "This is what you get when you appreciate what you have. I'm the luckiest man in the world; I have you, three kids, a house in the country, and a perfect life. What more can I ask for?"

Finally, a smile curled up her lips until she let out a giggle, which warmed his heart. She always had the cutest laugh he ever heard and he loved hearing it to no end.

"You're right," Maki said, lightly kissing him on the nose before moving to his cheek.

"Whoa, easy there, cowgirl," he teased with a smirk. "You sure you want kid number four that quickly?"

She lightly smacked him on the cheek, along with a stern face that said "get your head out of the gutter".

"Sometimes, you drive me crazy," she replied in a sultry voice, low enough so the kids couldn't hear.

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 **My heart ached for them as I wrote this, especially Nishijima. You know that in his heart of hearts, he wished for something like that with her. It's just so sad that it never happened. I know that grief is a powerful thing, but to let it drive you to madness is just selfish. She took him for granted, and it got the both of them killed in the end.**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed that little ditty and I will see you all tomorrow for the next update of Destined Jedi. I also have a little surprise announcement for you ;-)**


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